Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1695 New situation in diplomacy ([-])

On May 1675, 5, the monstrous waves on the North Sea finally calmed down a bit, and a certain Russian diplomatic mission arrived in the port of London in a low-key way aboard a three-masted large sailing ship of the British Eastland Company.They boarded a ship near Königsberg in Prussia, and then crossed the Baltic Sea and the North Sea all the way to the United Kingdom. The purpose was to have formal diplomatic talks with people on the east coast—an appointment made in advance.

The head of the mission was named Ignady Mirovanov, and he had two deputies, Anton Shilev and Gregory Kobyakov.This gentleman had been sent to Beijing five years ago and had diplomatic consultations with the courtiers of Manchu Bogd Khan, which played a certain role in consolidating the so-called Qing-Russian relationship.

After a few years, Tsar Alexei thought of his courtier again, so he sent him to London to negotiate the normalization of relations between the two countries with the people on the east coast.There were more than ten people in their mission, and they arrived at the Principality of Prussia on the Baltic Sea coast by land, and then arrived in London on a British merchant ship.

When the merchant ship of the British Eastland Company, which was loaded with rye, passed through the North Sea, Mirovanov and his party were greatly shocked by the hazy weather and huge waves.You must know that although his hometown is on the coast of the White Sea in the north, Mirovanov has never been out at sea for even a day, because the shipbuilding technology and navigation technology of the Russian Empire are really bad, except for some on the White Sea. Apart from the dangerous small Russian whaling ships or offshore fishing boats, there are only merchant ships from other countries. Mirovanov, like most Russian nobles, is a landlubber through and through.

Mirovanov and others lived in London for a few days, during which they met with some members of Congress, mainly discussing business aspects, such as the increasing export volume of Russian rye, hemp, paraffin, honey, mast, Specialty products such as wood and fur.

As we all know, with the deepening of the Franco-Dutch War, many European countries have gradually been involved in this war that has lasted for many years.Among them, Sweden, which has always been a major exporter of masts, timber, wood tar, hemp, etc., is said to have been moved by Louis XIV's huge bribes and stood on the side of the Kingdom of France. It is believed that the alliance will be officially signed soon and war on the United Provinces will be declared. .Incidentally, the Swedes can also confiscate large sums of investment from Dutch businessmen in the territory (Sweden’s economy is almost controlled by the Netherlands, and the copper, iron ore, and lead mines in the territory have long been mortgaged to the Dutch), and the royal family can also rely on it A lot of debts, turning over overnight, this business is not too easy to do, so it is inevitable for the Swedes to stand on the side of the French.

And because of Sweden's extremely bad behavior of betrayal (the Dutch believe that they have given this country a lot of assistance in the past, Sweden should be grateful), the United Provinces also sent a naval fleet to the Baltic Sea, blocking many ports along the Swedish coast, causing Its export trade has been greatly reduced, and commodities such as ship tools and timber in Western European countries have become extremely scarce.As a last resort, Russia can only be topped up. The natural environment of this country is somewhat similar to Sweden, and the specialty products are also similar. Therefore, a large number of ships from the United Provinces and England sail to Arkhangelsk and St. Nicholas. Trade boomed seemingly overnight.

As the British Eastland Company that has been dealing with Russia for many years (it was interrupted for a period of time by the order of the shocked Czar because the English "killed the king"), their shareholders have been committed to improving relations with the Russians, so this Once the Mirovanov delegation arrived in London, they were immediately warmly received by them, and the guests and hostess enjoyed themselves for a while.

After "fooling around" with the English for several days, Mirovanov seemed to have finally remembered the people on the east coast, so immediately, with the help of the middleman, the British Eastland Company, on May 1675, 5, he had a meeting with the East Coast in the Iron Mansion. Cai Zhenguo, the shore ambassador to the UK, made the first official contact.

The issues that the two parties involved at the beginning were undoubtedly about the assets and personnel in Russia on the east coast, and the issue of re-demarcation of the Far East.For this reason, Cai Zhenguo asked whether Mirovanov had a formal authorization document from His Majesty Tsar Alexei so that he could participate in such negotiations.Kobyakov, Mirovanov's deputy, carefully took out the document signed by the tsar from the package. Cai Zhenguo looked at it pretendingly, but he didn't know if it was true or not. In London, this should not be faked, so the identity of the other party's negotiator was confirmed.

Because the special envoy of the East Bank to Europe has entrusted Cai Zhenguo to preside over all negotiations with Russia, so Ambassador Cai will not be polite at this meeting. As soon as they met, he asked the Russians to return the East Bank assets in Russia, and at the same time compensate for the losses. In addition, he was forced to naturalize The unlucky East Coast technicians will also be sent back one by one.

Mirovanov must have discussed these issues in his own country before he came, so after hearing Cai Zhenguo mention this, he immediately said: The small star shipyard located in the newly built town of Severodvinsk will still resume the East-Russia joint venture. State, the two parties each hold half of the shares and jointly operate (in fact, the factory has long been in a state of semi-shutdown); the Arkhangelsk gun repair plant will also resume the state of joint venture between the two parties, and the tsar himself is willing to invest [-] rubles. Purchasing equipment, hiring new technical and management personnel, and improving the technical level of the factory. After the upgrade, the shares of the factory are still shared by both parties, each accounting for half; the east bank is located in Arkhangelsk and Moscow. Also, at the same time, another piece of land will be allocated to the East Bank people for future embassy purposes; as for the forced naturalization of the East Bank technicians, Mirovanov said that they lived "very happily" in Russia and may not want to do it again. The people on the east bank are sorry, I hope Cai Zhenguo can understand.

It is said that the sincerity of the Russians is still very good. Although they did not mention the whereabouts of the goods that were seized in the trading station, and they did not intend to return the "detained" East Coast technicians, but they still intend to reconcile. Urgent, this point is similar to people on the east coast, the local executive committee is also slightly dissatisfied with so many things in the Heishui area, and ordered to end it as soon as possible, without involving more energy.

But that being said, Cai Zhenguo still intends to fight for the rights and interests of the east coast, so he repeatedly entangled with the Russian representative Mirovanov on the issue of cargo compensation and return of technicians, and in the end Mirovanov finally took a step back , indicating that for the "missing" goods on the east bank, the Moscow and Arkhangelsk state treasury will compensate [-] rubles and [-] rubles respectively, and the land of the embassy on the east bank in Moscow will only charge a preferential price of [-] rubles, which is considered It seems that the Russians did not compensate for the loss of goods, and instead let the people on the east coast use the land for free to build an embassy.

As for those East Coast technicians who were forced to naturalize in Russia, Mirovanov also seemed very embarrassed. No matter what Cai Zhenguo asked or threatened, it seemed that the effect was not good.It was not until the end that Mirovanov let go and said that the technicians on the East Bank who had family members on the East Bank might be able to make their own decision whether to return, while those who had no family members on the East Bank and had married in Russia could only stay in Russia. local.Moreover, he made it clear that his proposal was only a "suggestion", that is, he still needed to report to the Tsar for approval, because this obviously exceeded his authority.

Cai Zhenguo thought about it, and felt that this was probably the limit that the Russians could accept.This country has a relatively tough personality, is sensitive and self-respecting. It is indeed a lot of concessions to be able to give the above conditions. All happy, on to the next topic.

When it comes to business issues, the atmosphere is obviously much more relaxed and pleasant.Mirovanov said that the share of weapons and military trade between the two countries should be strengthened, and that the east coast should sell some corresponding processing equipment to Russia to ensure that they can repair damaged firearms, artillery, armor and other things. For this reason, they can Reduce the intensity of purchasing weapons and military resources from the Dutch (in fact, the Dutch are still not enough for their own use), and instead seek alternatives from the east coast.

Cai Zhenguo agreed in principle to this issue.Based on the current state of domestic military production, due to the lack of such a big customer as the United Provinces, it is now basically facing the dilemma of underemployment. If it were not for the continued order from the Ottoman Empire, more than two-thirds of this would have been closed. The workshop turned to the production of other low value-added things.Now that the Russian Empire is willing to step up, that would be a very good thing. The two major military enterprises on the east coast can start production at full capacity. After all, the Russian Empire has a huge army, and a little equipped with a few legions is enough for two factories to produce a lot. Time is running out, probably the only thing to worry about is whether they have enough cash to pay for the goods.

You must know that the basis for Russia's proposal to increase trade between the East and Russia is entirely based on the prosperity of their trade with England and the United Provinces.Once this kind of trade declines, or if the Kingdom of Sweden does not formally ally with the Kingdom of France-this possibility is extremely small, because it is rumored that part of the Swedish army has already been deployed to the territory of the German state that has handed over to it. For this reason, Brandenburg-Prussia Received a large amount of arms and financial assistance from the United Provinces in the first place, and more than [-] troops in the country were mobilized to prepare to fight the Swedes. The shame of being hanged before the snow-may cause the Russians to not have enough precious metals. to pay for goods or equipment procured from the East Coast, which has absolutely no interest in their specialties.

However, it seems that Mirovanov is full of confidence. He said that the economy of the Russian Empire has developed rapidly in recent years. Wood, masts, hemp, wood tar and other ships have become bulk export materials, and grain, fur, honey, wax, tallow It is the country's traditional export commodity, and the fiscal revenue of the empire is still very healthy, and it has always been in surplus in terms of international trade.If the East Bank is willing to deepen trade ties with Russia, then there is no need to worry about the ability to pay.Even, if they are willing to export some high-quality machinery (such as circular saws, industrial blades, woodworking lathes, etc.) to Russia, then maybe the production capacity of their domestic forest farms and wood processing factories can be further improved. It should not be a big problem to squeeze the market share from countries such as Poland and Sweden.

Cai Zhenguo felt that what Mirovanov said was also reasonable, and anyway, people on the east coast insisted on not paying on credit, and the Russians would have no chance to renege on their debts, they would buy if they had money, and they would lose money if they had no money, so they talked all day Finally, he signed a framework agreement with the other party at a later date, and planned to send it to Spain in two days for Li Qing to review and approve.

After talking about this business, the following is the key issue of the demarcation of the Amur River Basin in the Far East.In this matter, both sides are very cautious, and have been arguing for several days before they have a preliminary framework. However, because they don't know the development of the frontline battle situation, this framework seems a bit vague, and further discussions will be needed in the future.

The agreements reached so far are as follows: [-]. The border between the two countries shall be from the Stanov Mountains (i.e. Outer Khingan Mountains) to the Udi River flowing into the sea (Okhotsk Sea), but the border between the mountains and the Udi River The local area is temporarily regarded as an undelimited area, which will be discussed in detail later.

[-]. The fugitives before the signing of the peace treaty shall be allowed to stay in their original places without exchange; after the conclusion of the treaty, if there are any fugitives from both sides, they shall be immediately returned to the border officials of the two countries.[-]. Citizens of the two countries who hold passports are allowed to cross the border to conduct private affairs or buy and sell goods.[-]. If the subjects of the two countries steal or kill people across the border, if it is committed by a small number of people, they shall be punished by corporal punishment in the border city; .[-]. The two sides exchange captives, in principle, one-to-one exchange, if the number of one party is insufficient, a ransom will be paid at the price of [-] rubles per person.[-]. Both parties shall set up a bazaar in an open place in the Amur River Basin to conduct regular border mutual trade, and the bazaar shall be jointly supervised by the two sides.

Basically, these are the only things that the two sides can reach at present. The rest are still being discussed, or need to be consulted with superiors, or need to understand the situation on the front line, so no conclusion can be drawn for a while, so they can only be shelved.For example, the eastern bank proposed that the southern part of the border be divided by the Ergun River, but the Russians rejected it, because they did not think it was the land of the eastern bankers, and they were also afraid that the eastern bankers would be too powerful .

However, both Mirovanov and Cai Zhenguo himself are quite confident that the two countries will eventually reach a peace agreement, because this is the common demand of the top governments of the two countries. Some differences are not obstacles at all, and sooner or later they will be able to negotiate.Moreover, the Russians did not mention the close ties between the East Bank, the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire at all during the negotiations. Obviously, they did not want to complicate this matter. Therefore, Cai Zhenguo was more confident that the two countries should be able to negotiate The next year (1676) a formal peace agreement was reached.

(End of this chapter)